I have played the game of school, almost consistently for the last 8 years. Before I entered middle school, it was not a game, but rather a time when I learned and strived to learn more. In middle school, it became a game. I knew a large amount of the material and picked up what I didn’t know rather quickly. Everything was a game. The homework was completed for a simple grade which inevitably balance out any poor test or quiz grades. There was little reason to put in real effort, as it was a simple formula to success. In high School, it was much the same. There was a formula, do homework, add fair quiz grades, explain issues of stress to the teacher when your grade slipped lower than a B and ask for extra credit. The passion which I had felt for learning was sapped even more by teachers who acted as though I couldn’t do the work. The only place where I truly felt invigorated by school was in history, and even then, only in AP US History. There, I had to work to keep up with the fast pace of the assignments, and was eagerly cataloguing all the little details for later recollection. This feeling did not last long as in my other classes it was the same story. Teachers making me feel it was useless to try, and work which was either too easy or too hard to reinforce those feelings. I played the game and knew it while I was playing. I could complain about the issues of the game for quite a while.
I have played the game of school, almost consistently for the last 8 years. Before I entered middle school, it was not a game, but rather a time when I learned and strived to learn more. In middle school, it became a game. I knew a large amount of the material and picked up what I didn’t know rather quickly. Everything was a game. The homework was completed for a simple grade which inevitably balance out any poor test or quiz grades. There was little reason to put in real effort, as it was a simple formula to success. In high School, it was much the same. There was a formula, do homework, add fair quiz grades, explain issues of stress to the teacher when your grade slipped lower than a B and ask for extra credit. The passion which I had felt for learning was sapped even more by teachers who acted as though I couldn’t do the work. The only place where I truly felt invigorated by school was in history, and even then, only in AP US History. There, I had to work to keep up with the fast pace of the assignments, and was eagerly cataloguing all the little details for later recollection. This feeling did not last long as in my other classes it was the same story. Teachers making me feel it was useless to try, and work which was either too easy or too hard to reinforce those feelings. I played the game and knew it while I was playing. I could complain about the issues of the game for quite a while.